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Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner (better known as Kathleen Turner) is an American film and stage actress and director. Known for her distinctive husky voice, Turner has won two Golden Globe Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award. Turner rose to fame during the 1980s, after roles in Body Heat (1981), The Man with Two Brains (1983), Crimes of Passion (1984), Romancing the Stone (1984), and Prizzi's Honor(1985), the last two earning her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In the later 1980s and early 1990s, Turner had roles in The Accidental Tourist (1988), The War of the Roses (1989), Serial Mom (1994) and Peggy Sue Got Married(1986), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Turner later had roles in The Virgin Suicides(1999), Baby Geniuses (1999), and Beautiful(2000), as well as guest-starring on the NBCsitcom Friends as Chandler Bing's cross-dressing1 father Charles Bing, and in the third season of Showtime's Californication as Sue Collini, the jaded, sex-crazed owner of a talent agency. Turner has also done considerable work as a voice actress, namely as Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), as well as Monster House (2006), and the television series The Simpsons and King of the Hill. In addition to film, Turner has worked in the theatre, and has been nominated for the Tony Award twice for her Broadway roles as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Turner has also taught acting classes at New York University.23 Early Life Kathleen Turner was born June 19, 1954, in Springfield, Missouri, the daughter of Patsy (née Magee 1923–2015) and Allen Richard Turner, a U.S. Foreign Service officer who grew up in China (where Turner's great-grandfather had been a Methodist missionary). She has a sister, Susan, and two brothers. Turner was raised in a strict conservative Christian household, and her interest in performing was discouraged by both of her parents: "My father was of missionary stock," she later explained, "so theater and acting were just one step up from being a streetwalker, you know? So when I was performing in school, he would drive my mom there and sit in the car. She'd come out at intermissions and tell him, 'She's doing very well.'" Owing to her father's employment in the Foreign Service, Turner grew up abroad and graduated from the American School in London in 1972. Her father died of a coronary thrombosis that same year, and then the family moved back to the United States. At the age of 19, Turner began volunteering at a local Planned Parenthood office. She attended Missouri State University in Springfield for two years, then studied theater at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977. During that period, Turner acted in several productions directed by the film and stage director Steve Yeager. Career Film and Television In 1977, she made her television debut in the NBC show The Doctors, and in 1981, Kathleen made her film debut as Matty Walker in Body Heat. After that, she went on to major starring roles and even did voice acting for certain films and TV shows, the most notable of which being the temperamental and abused Constance in the 2006 film Monster House, Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as well as roles in The Simpsons and King of the Hill. Theatre and Broadway Several months after moving to New York City in 1977, Turner took over the female lead in Michael Zetter's play Mister T, which co-starred Jonathan Frakes and played at Soho Repertory Theatre. That production marked her off-Broadway debut. Several months later, Turner made her Broadway debut as Judith Hastings in Gemini by Albert Innaurato, staged at The Little Theatre (now known as the Helen Hayes Theater) and starring Danny Aiello. It opened May 21, 1977, during the time when she was appearing in the soap The Doctors. Rhuematoid Arthitis Turner remained an A-list film star leading lady until the early 1990s, when rheumatoid arthritis seriously restricted her activities and her movie career went into rapid decline. She turned down lead roles in Ghost and The Bridges of Madison County, both of which became big hits. The arthritis diagnosis was made in 1992 after Turner had suffered "unbearable" pain for about a year. By the time she was diagnosed she "could hardly turn her head or walk, and was told she would end up in a wheelchair." As the disease worsened and the medication greatly altered Turner's looks, along with excess alcohol consumption that Turner said she used to kill her physical pain, her career as a leading lady went into a steep decline and Turner was seen in fewer and fewer very successful films – though Turner also blamed her age, stating, "when I was forty the roles started slowing down, I started getting offers to play mothers and grandmothers ..." She appeared in the low-budget House of Cards, experienced moderate success with John Waters's black comedy Serial Mom, and had supporting roles in A Simple Wish, The Real Blonde, and Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides. She also provided the voice of Malibu Stacy's creator, Stacy Lovell, in the episode "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" on The Simpsons. Despite drug therapy to help her condition, the disease progressed for about eight years. Then, thanks to newly available treatments, her arthritis went into remission. She was seen increasingly on television, including three episodes of Friends, where she appeared as Chandler Bing's estranged, gay father, who works as a drag queen in Las Vegas. Personal Life Turner married the real estate entrepreneur Jay Weiss of New York City in 1984, and they had one child, their daughter, Rachel Ann Weiss, who was born on October 14, 1987. Turner had been born into a Methodist family, but she has said that she has "taken on a certain amount of Jewish tradition and identity" since marrying her Jewish husband and raising their daughter in Judaism. In 2006, Turner announced that she and Weiss were planning a trial separation. Turner and Weiss carried this forward to a divorce that became official in December 2007, but Turner has said, "Jay's still my best friend." By the late 1980s, Turner had acquired a reputation for being difficult: what The New York Times called "a certifiable diva." She admitted that she had developed into "not a very kind person," and the actress Eileen Atkins referred to her as "an amazing nightmare."[9] Turner slammed Hollywood over the difference in the quality of roles offered to male actors and female actors as they age, calling the disparity a "terrible double standard." In 1990, Turner received unfavorable publicity when a deliberately lit fire at the Happy Land Social Club, located in a building managed by her husband, claimed 87 lives. The club was operating without a license and the building had been cited for numerous fire safety violations,[34] but The New Yorker quoted Turner saying, "the fire was unfortunate, but could have happened at a McDonald's."[35] As a result of her altered looks and weight gain from her rheumatoid arthritis treatment, The New York Times published this statement in 2005, "Rumors began circulating that she was drinking too much. She later said in interviews that she didn't bother correcting the rumors because people in show business hire drunks all the time, but not people who are sick." Turner has had well-publicized problems with alcohol, which she used as an escape from the pain and symptoms of acute rheumatoid arthritis. Turner has admitted that because of her illness, she was in constant unbearable agony and that as a result, the people she was closest to would suffer from it, as she was constantly drinking to relieve the pain and it made her a very difficult person.[36] A few weeks after leaving the production of the play The Graduate in November 2002, Turner was admitted into the Marworth hospital in Waverly, Pennsylvania, for the treatment of alcoholism. "I have no problem with alcohol when I'm working," she explained. "It's when I'm home alone that I can't control my drinking...I was going toward excess. I mean, really! I think I was losing my control over it. So it pulled me back."[9] Turner has worked with Planned Parenthood of America since age 19, and later became a chairperson. She also serves on the board of People for the American Way, and volunteers at Amnesty International and Citymeals-on-Wheels. She was one of John Kerry's first celebrity endorsers. She has been a frequent donor to the Democratic Party. She has also worked to raise awareness of rheumatoid arthritis.[37] In the mid-2000s, Turner collaborated with Gloria Feldt on the writing of her memoirs, Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles. The book was published in 2008.[38] In the book, Turner claimed that Nicolas Cage had gotten drunk, and stole a chihuahua that he liked.[39] In turn, Cage filed a lawsuit against Turner and her book publisher in the UK who took an excerpt from the book and posted it on their website (pre-publication).[39] Cage argued defamation and damage to character and won the case, resulting in retractions, legal fees, and a donation to charity.[39] Turner later publicly apologized.[40] During an interview on The View, Turner apologized for any distress she might have caused Cage regarding an incident that took place 20 years earlier.[41][42] Roles F06767A4-039C-4C48-ADDD-79CC9166A679.jpeg|Peggy Sue Bodell in Peggy Sue Got Married 8258B683-629B-4003-8C95-4A28C9892470.jpeg|Christy Colleran in Switching Channels 5FC06019-66C4-48C7-A7D8-5B2F371769BF.jpeg|Elena Kinder in Baby Geniuses A8BFBE06-966A-4B94-B413-194AA0332E84.jpeg|Verna Chickle In Beautiful Constance-the-giantess-monster-house-2.72.jpg|Constance Nebbercracker in Monster House Category:Females Category:Directors Category:Americans Category:Actresses Category:Voice Actresses Category:American Actresses Category:Living people Category:Monster House